Two options for landfill

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) met with Moorcroft’s governing body Monday morning to discuss the town’s options for the future of the municipal landfill.

Program Principal Craig McOmie and District #3 Supervisor Richard Lemm, both from the Casper office, brought insights and requirements for keeping the Moorcroft landfill open into the future.

This meeting was the result of the town’s unsuccessful maintenance of the landfill. DEQ arrived on site a last year and strongly denounced the condition of the facility. Adding to the problem, the town had no strategy to carry on or close the landfill and the agency refused to permit any more extensions without a plan.

With their first idea of a solid waste district stymied by the Crook County Commissioners, Mayor Claar asked town engineer Heath Turbiville of HDR Engineering to seek possible funding for bringing the facility up to an acceptable measure for the DEQ. Turbiville provided the council with an estimated cost of approximately $5 million for the endeavor.

The permit the town is pursuing is considered a “life-time” permit. This 25 year permit is anticipated to take at least a year to formalize; “it is the most complicated [to put together]”, according to Lemm, with a great deal of information and design packaged into the end product.

Site characterization to determine the geologic, hydrologic and engineering properties of the site, significant ground water monitor upgrades and closure design for the existing pit are only the beginning requirements sought by DEQ in the first year. Lemm would expect this information with the application by the end of the permit for the current extension, which is within the year.

Lemm also advised the need for a full-time trained landfill operator, “given the issues this one has had for so long.” Claar answered that the town has installed a full-time operator onsite. However, the individual is not formally trained or certified as Lemm had recommended.

The council has not yet been approved for funding and is hesitant to start the process without that net to pay the engineering fees and so on. However, Lemm explained that the agency will not wait for a possible three more years as the town waits for money, planning and then approval before beginning work.

Claar explained the situation: “We’re applying to USDA for funding to open a pit and a [construction and debris] pit and close the existing pit, but we’re going to need an extension because we’re just now getting the paperwork started for the USDA.”

However, the council’s request for more time on their existing expansion permit, which ends in about a year, was refused by Lemm: “We can’t wait to get the ball rolling on this other stuff until that’s ended. We need to get the ball rolling now.”

When Turbiville was unable to show the exact numbers for the rural development loan application he is preparing, he was reprimanded for not having ascertained these figures. McOmie admonished, “All I’m saying is please run the numbers. Make sure you can back up [your plan]. “

Lemm assured the body present, though, “I’m here to help you do what you want to do; [however], you want to really take care of the landfill. Once you pour that much money into lining it and putting the groundwater network in and everything else, you’ll want the manpower to do that. It’s going to be a lot more involved than what’s being run right now.”

With that warning, he declared the agency’s support for whatever the town decides to do: “We’ll be able to get you there, a new pit or another landfill, whatever you guys decide, we can get you there.”

McOmie concurred, “We won’t cut you off.” He did, however, make clear the state’s position regarding the choice of a lifetime permit, “The legislation is very clear, we’re trying to get people into regionalization or whatever path you’re going to go down.”

If the town chooses to continue toward a lifetime permit, said McOmie, “We literally need to have progress reports. If you start a lifetime permit, you’ll probably have a monthly call to tell [Lemm] where you’re at in the process so we have verification that everything’s moving ahead.”

When McOmie asked Claar why the council is pushing for another pit instead of closure of the landfill, the mayor answered, “The council, as a whole, feels pretty strongly that if we ever cease and transfer, we won’t have a landfill in Crook County. We’re looking at 15-20 years down the road and we think that will adversely affect us. We wouldn’t have any control over tipping fees or anything else.”

McOmie reasoned, “You wouldn’t in Crook County, but you have Belle Fourche, Gillette [and] Weston County. I can show you counties in this state that don’t have a landfill and have not been adversely affected like Niobrara.”

Councilman Ben Glenn added his support to Claar’s argument, “It is frustrating to try to deal with [someone else’s tipping fees and other problems] and my goal is to keep us from having to deal with all that.”

The DEQ agent commiserated, “I understand. When you control your land, you control your fate, but what you can’t control is cost.”

After advising Turbiville to provide the town with an accurate breakdown of anticipated costs of moving forward with keeping the landfill, McOmie advised a consideration of the second option.

The mayor voiced a willingness to look into a cease and transfer if the figures are not realistic for domestic tipping fees, resulting in the eventual full closure of the Moorcroft landfill.